FheTyrannyofGod 

Joseph Lewis 





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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



THE TYRANNY 
OF GOD 



BY 

JOSEPH LEWIS 



THE TRUTH PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1400 BROADWAY - NEW YORK CITY 






1^ 



COPYRIGHTED, 1921, BY 
THE TRUTH PUBLISHING CO. 



All Rights Reserved, including that of Translation into 
Foreign Languages including that of Scandinavian 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI.A617533 



;7 
f 






Dedicated 

TJ 

Fay 
My Dear Wife and Com- 
rade, Whose Loyal and 
Devoted Companionship 
Has Made Life Livable. 



FOREWORD 

Go forth, little book, to destroy fear, 
prejudice and superstition, and help to in- 
stall Reason in the minds of the human race 
to be its guide in the affairs of life and its 
living. 



[7] 



INTRODUCTION 

Where did we come from? 
What are we doing herefi 
Whither are we going? 

These questions have puzzled thinking 
people since consciousness first dawned in 
the brain. Many have sought to answer 
them, so why not I? — with the hope that 
the reading of this book will arouse in the 
minds of the readers thoughts that will en- 
able them to answer these questions for them- 
selves. 

Were you suddenly lo Snd yourself living 
on another planet, and you were a thinking 
being, one anxious for knowledge, you would 
naturally investigate the conditions under 
which you foimd yourself, and seek, if pos- 
sible, a solution for your existence there. 
Surely it is equally appropriate, situated as 
we are on this earth, endowed with brains and 
possessing senses and nerves, to inquire into 

[9] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

and investigate the conditions under which 
we live, and the purpose, if any, of our exist- 
ence here. 

The peculiarity of this existence warrants 
such analysis. It is certain, from our under- 
standing as well as from all visible scientific 
facts, that we did not make ourselves, and 
that we never had a former existence; and 
we are led to conclude, in view of lack of 
credible evidence to the contrary, from those 
who have passed on, that the future, so far as 
our individual life is concerned, is an eternal 
void. 

It is also certain, as science has indubitably 
shown, that we do not make our offspring, 
that we are not creators, but are instruments 
merely in producing life. 

Furthermore, we did not make any por- 
tion of the globe which we inhabit and of 
whicK we are a part, and, so far as we are 
able to determine, all the natural conditions 
and "raw materials" of our environment are 
something separate and distinct from any- 
[10] 



THE tyrann:y of god 

thing which we ourselves possess sufficient 
power to accomplish. 

Therefore, since among the organs of my 
body, there is a thinking portion, I am within 
the bounds of sanity when I investigate and 
express such thoughts, opinions and findings 
as my reason and understanding dictate. No 
one can truthfully say that he possesses suf- 
ficient knowledge to account for or to explain 
the peculiar and mystifying rules, conditions 
and surroundings which we are forced to ac- 
cept, abide by and live under. And, there- 
fore, the result of one person's findings is 
worthy the same consideration as those of 
another. 

Upon such basis I submit an Honest at- 
tempt to express logically my convictions 
upon this vital and puzzling condition of our 
existence, arid shall endeavor to aid those 
who read this book to see conditions in what 
I believe to be their true light, and to stimu- 
late the readers to think for themselves. It 
is only through the exchange of the results 

[11] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

of investigations, and of honest opinions, that 
we have been able to add improvement to im- 
provement, and make easier the routine of 
our lives. The conditions and elements that 
compose Nature, for the sake of clearness, I 
will ofttimes call "God." I shall be more 
easily understood, and at times the term 
''God" will express more succinctly the 
thoughts or ideas I wish to express. 



[12] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

I 

LEST I be misunderstood, I will say 
at the outset that I do not believe in 
a God. 
The belief in a God is still generally ac- 
cepted, not because of the existence of one, 
but for the reason that it is the easiest way 
to account for our condition. But in the 
light of scientific discoveries and demonstra- 
tions, such a belief is unfounded and utterly 
untenable to-day. Yet the word "God," 
and even the word "Nature," must often be 
used to describe that condition which the 
brain of man has not yet been able to 
analyze fully and scientifically. One ridicu- 
lous conception of God that is believed by 
a multitude of people, is that of a massive 
being, sitting in a marble chamber studded 
with gold and lighted with glistening crys- 
tals. Do those who believe in such a creature 
[13] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ever consider him taking a bath — and in 
what? Or of eating his breakfast — and of 
what it consists? 

If there were a God, and the world were 
governed with stern justice, tempered to our 
feeble intelligence, existence might become 
tolerable, but as it is, with a so-called God 
"ruling above," the earth is an abominable 
place and life a long series of terrifying tor- 
ments. If I were to advocate a belief, or 
faith, in a God, I would seek the embodiment 
of those things diametrically opposite to the 
attributes of the popular God of to-day. 
Such a creature is not worthy the sacrifice of 
ourselves and our thoughts. 

Let us examine and investigate the system 
and arrangement of the world — that is, that 
portion of which we are a part and which so 
vitally concerns us. 

The result of our most extensive study and 
labor shows us that the earth, after an illim- 
itable duration of time, has gradually at- 
tained its present peculiar development. In 
[14] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

other words, Nature has taken millions of 
years to produce the earth as it is now 
formed ; and if it were made particularly for 
human beings it is not yet completed, for we 
still find spots, aye, vast areas, where human 
life is incapable of subsisting. The climate 
isNcither too hot or too €old ; there is too much 
water or too little moisture; the means of 
cultivation are too meager or utterly unob- 
tainable. 

In short, after eons of labor. Nature has 
failed to be able to present to every one of 
us, for our habitation, a parcel of earth com- 
modious and comfortable enough to be per- 
fectly desirable for life and its living. 

Surely, if the earth were made for our ben- 
efit. Nature has been not only a very poor 
provider, but a very thoughtless parent. 

Some say that man is Nature's best pro- 
duct, that the earth was made for us, that we 
are particularly selected by God, and that a 
certain race is his chosen people. But that 
is not true. The Jews are no more God's 
[15] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

chosen people than the jay is his chosen bird, 
or the mosquito his chosen insect. 

It is not true that Nature particularly 
works for us — facts prove the contrary. 

Facts prove that we are nothing but an 
undesirable by-product, to make our way 
and to live our life as best we can within a 
cruelly turbulent space, imprisoned by in- 
visible, impenetrable walls of limitation. 

No, it is not true that our life is favored 
by Nature. After we build our homes, make 
our cities and add improvements, what hap- 
pens? Nature, with her forceful winds, 
blows them down; her cruel storms and ris- 
ing floods wash them away as so much refuse, 
and a tremor of the earth destroys not only 
our homes but ourselves also, leaving no 
traces of our efforts, treasures and sacred 
ties. 

Even as individuals we "curse God" for 

the shortcomings with which we are afflicted. 

The exceedingly stout person, one who is "in 

his own way" curses God for making him so 

[16] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

stout. The thin person has a similar griev- 
ance. Those who are too large and those 
who are too small are equally dissatisfied. 
The shape of an eye, the curve of the mouth, 
a blemish here, an impediment there, is the 
direct cause of poignant embarrassment. 
Organs or dimensions too unsightly and un- 
satisfactory are productive of continual 
worry and torment throughout our lives. 
The blind, the deaf, the dumb and the crip- 
pled have forever a curse for God upon their 
lips. 

We inhabit the air, with a density of fif- 
teen pounds to the square inch, a mixture of 
dirt and water, in the same manner that the 
fish inhabits the water and the worm the 
earth. Were we beings of a superior type. 
Nature would have made us so versatile that 
we should be able to accustom ourselves to 
any condition, and survive in any climate. 
But despite all our improvements, despite all 
man's efforts to avoid and escape the con- 
ditions of Nature, many of us freeze to death 
[17] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

in winter and become prostrate from the heat 
of summer. If it were true that the earth 
were purposely made and existing for us 
there would be "no flowers born to blush un- 
seen and waste their sweetness on the desert 
air/^ 

We, ourselves, scientists tell us, are the re- 
sult of a long series of evolutionary develop- 
ment. They tell us that Nature started with 
a single cell of protoplasm, a single cell of 
living organism, and produced the present 
human species after the life and death of an 
illimitable number of forms through the 
stages of countless ages, not exempting those 
lives from the fear, torture and misery that 
are still so essential a part of the scheme of 
life. Why impose so cruel and wasteful a 
condition upon those numberless billions that 
have lived before us, since nothing but eter- 
nal death was gained by their existence? 

Surely, Nature is a poor architect and 
builder, after taking so much material and 
so much time, to make such an incomplete 
[18] 



THE TYEANNY OF GOD 

place for such an outlandish form to rule and 
occupy. If we were given the same ojDpor- 
tunity (that is, you and I), with all the 
power and resources of Nature, to build a 
habitable place, and mold a living something 
to inhabit it, our results would be ten thou- 
sand times better than that which circles the 
scope and boundary of our lives, with the in- 
comprehensible physical form with which we 
breathe and manifest life. 

Truthfully, and without the slightest ele- 
ment of egotism, I should be ashamed of my 
efforts were I to present as my handiwork 
nothing better than the level and plane which 
Nature has attained. 



[19] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



II 

WE come into this world a tiny bundle 
and mass of helpless, feeble flesh, 
utterly unprepared to meet the requirements 
and fearful conditions that lie in wait for us. 
We are in need of immediate, urgent and 
constant help from those who were respon- 
sible for our birth, imperatively so from our 
mother. 

The child does not ask to come, and knows 
absolutely nothing about its welfare. And 
the mother often does not want to bear it, as 
she knows absolutely nothing about maternal 
cares. And yet that mother must go through 
the "shadow of the valley of death" before 
she can deliver this tiny bundle and helpless 
mass of feeble flesh. And how often, aye, 
only too often, does the mother enter the val- 
ley of death when making delivery of this 
living form, never to see the face of the child 
that Nature imposed upon her to bear! 
[21] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

What a despicable arrangement ! 

What an unfair bargain ! 

Can you imagine a more outlandish, ridicu- 
lous, awkward, complicated, cruel and fear- 
ful system of reproduction than that which 
we are under yoke to pursue? Without the 
elaborate details of the perilous stages of 
life's development, this is the method of in- 
cubation Nature imposes upon us. Before 
the birth of a human being, one male and one 
female — that is, one man and one woman — 
must have sexual intercourse. ^Vhether this 
intercourse is prompted by all the finer im- 
pulses of life or is accomplished by the sav- 
ageness of rape makes no difference to Na- 
ture's purpose. To Nature the end justifies 
the means, and she continues to go about her 
business. 

The male — that is, the man of this pair — 
can strut and parade with the utmost 
freedom from his responsibility for the 
result of his act that Nature has made to be 
pre-eminent among his desires. But the fe- 
[22] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

male — that is, the woman of this pair — must 
for nine months (just think of it!) carry and 
develop the germ of this child in the fertile 
field of her womb, and be subjected to the 
innumerable terrifying dangers accompany- 
ing such a carriage, and then suffer a super- 
human torture to make the delivery, through 
a very meager channel of her body, of this 
living plant wliich she has never seen, does 
not know and quite often does not want, but 
must absolutely bear! 

Provided Nature has not made the crea- 
ture too deformed and mutilated and unable 
to survive, the mother must, during a period 
of constant care and outward carriage^ bear 
this feeble infant for another period of nine 
months or more ! — suckling at her breast for 
food! 

So you see that woman is not only a human 
being, but a fertile ground and pasture. 

I have not gone into the misery of child 
bearing and caring, nor of the ingratitude 
that is so often received. I ask for what 
[23] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

reason has Nature imposed this terrible pen- 
alty upon woman? Why? 

Would you, reader, were it m your power, 
formulate such a method of reproduction? 

I'll answer for you: 

No! 

But that is not all. For years to come, 
this chUd that for nine months was carried 
inwardly and for a much longer period out- 
wardly, by its mother, must now be fed, 
washed and clothed for an indefinite number 
of years, and guided through a thousand 
perils and dangers that Nature has set be- 
fore it, with disease as Nature's agent, 
crouching and ready to destroy the child's 
life, not in open combat, but invisibly con- 
cealed by the limitation of our senses. This 
is one of Nature's imspeakable crimes; one 
of God's despicable impositions. 

It is not sufficient that a mother should 
subject herself to such a dangerous and peri- 
lous mission, but she must also withstand the 
cruel savageness, the cold, callous death 
[24] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

piercings,- of Nature's invisible tyrants and 
destroyers. Life holds but one real attrac- 
tion, one instance that can be classified above 
all others. Without this attraction it would 
be a blessing to choke the life breath from us 
all. With it we are helped to bear the 
Tyranny of God. 

There comes a time to some of us when 
the heart of the one man beats for the one 
woman, and there alights and resides in their 
breasts that spark of devotion that we call 
**love." When there is born to that union a 
child, even though in Nature's stupid way, 
then a bond is created more precious than 
anything else in this world. Without this 
little circle of loving joy, the earth is a prison 
and life a grave injustice for those who must 
bear it. But think of the damnable rule of 
Nature that strives and delights in working 
destruction of the only condition worthy of 
life's living ! 

Oh, if only the life of our offspring were 
more stable, more secure ! 
[25] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

If only the bosom of our family were giiar- 
anteed to us! Just think! The child the 
parents would not harm, Nature tortures and 
God kills! 

Looking back upon the path we have trod- 
den, with its continual fight against disease, 
its manifold combats with obstacles of life, 
and with its inevitable portion of sorrow we 
all must bear, we should think seriously and 
consider the result of our act before we delib- 
erately bring another human being into this 
life. 

You, yourself, do not consider your life 
worthy of reliving, so why bring a human 
being here to go through the same, if not 
more, suffering and misery than you have 
borne with no resultant good? 



[26] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



III 

UP to this point I have been speaking of 
human beings only, living under im- 
proved conditions that man has made. What 
must be the horror, darlaiess and emptiness 
of those living substances that are "inferior" 
to us? Do you laiow and realize the suffer- 
ing that we endure? Then let me, in pass- 
ing, urge this : Be also kind and considerate 
to our less fortunate inhabitants of this 
earth, the "dumb" animals. Their feelings 
are quite similar to ours. They have gone 
through the rougher parts of evolution that 
gave to us our more useful organs and limbs. 
THey are allied to us in much the same man- 
ner as the members of our own species. They 
have their painful aches and periods, their 
hardships and tortures, their broken family 
ties and fearful abhorrence of death; their 
flesh is tender and their skin is as delicate to 
them as ours is to us. 

[27] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

So let US "think twice," dear readers, be- 
fore we deliberately harm any of our humbler 
brothers and sisters that must inhabit this 
cold and callous earth and live their lives 
under a great deal more tyranny and injus- 
tice than we live ours. 

We deliberately enslave and brutally treat 
the gentle horse. 

We tyrannically imprison birds and fishes 
as "pets." 

We keep, breed, kill and eat a variety of 
animals for our own selfish purposes, and yet 
some persons still have the audacity to say 
that we are "chosen people," "God's chil- 
dren," "divine beings." Bah! 

You know what painful inconvenience 
there is in losing an arm or a leg. Well, the 
winged and footed beings that must bear this 
life suffer a great deal more than we do when 
one of their limbs becomes dismembered. 

Man has to a degree remedied or replaced 
his crippled limbs, but I do not think any 
other of the higher animals have advanced so 
[28] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

far, and as a result these creatures must en- 
dure their pain and distressing annoyance to 
the end. 

Recently I watched a common house fly 
caught upon "fly paper," and studied in- 
tently every visible movement of it. Imme- 
diately upon alighting upon the sticky sub- 
stance, its first thought, almost instantane- 
ously, was to make an effort to free itself. 
At once I thought of the fly's instinct of 
"self-preser\^ation," and contrasted it with 
the human's. 

The fly must have had intelligence, since 
it knew that its life was in danger. And, 
since Nature does not deal in "fly paper," 
the fly's reasoning power told it of its peril. 
With unabated determination it vibrated its 
wings with lightning-like rapidity, and 
worked its legs unceasingly, breaking them 
in the attempt, in its efforts to pull itself 
away to freedom ! 

As I watched this fly in its labor, this 
thought came to me: Is the flv unlike the 
[29] 



TPIE TYRANNY OF GOD 

human being in its desire to live? Is it afraid 
of death and of the mystery of dissolution? 
Has it, too, all the agony of fear of passing 
to the "Great Beyond"? Has it, too, an 
imaginary God in the form of a Big Fly? 
And is it also afraid of that God's supposed 
wrath? f 

If the fly's desire to live is so great, what 
interest does it have in life? 

Does it love? Does it derive happiness 
when it is able to labor to make happy its fly 
Juliet? ' 

Does it want to live because it is ambitious 
and is trying to excel other flies? 

Does it really think to better its species 
and solve the problem of its kind? 

Is there a fly family to mourn its death? 

While watching that fly and asking myself 
these questions, I was convinced of the fol- 
lowing truths: 

That the force that we call life is the same 
that animates the fly. That it, too, has con- 
trol of its muscles and nerves in the same 
[30] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

proportion as we have control of ours. That 
it, too, possesses the five senses and adds to 
its tiny brain more intelligence through its 
experiences. Within the movements and ac- 
tions of that fly was wrapped up the secret 
of ''Whence did I come, and whither am I 
going?" 

As I released my attention from that fly, 
I muttered to myself: "The more I look at 
insects, the more I think I am one." 

For what purpose do "we arise in the morn- 
ing, fill our stomachs with food, till the fields, 
and perform labor in exchange for nourish- 
ment, in the evening fall into a sleep from 
exertion, arise the next day, and perform the 
same routine, day in and day out, week in 
and week out, year in and year out, and at 
the age and in the heyday of physical devel- 
opment seek an outlet in the opposite sex for 
the strongest impulse that Nature has im- 
planted in us? 

This impulse forces us to commit rape and 
murder, robbery and assault, and to violate 
[31] 



THE TYRANNY OP GOD 

every principle of honor that man has tried 
to establish for the betterment and advance- 
ment of the race. 

iWith the dissipation of this mighty sex 
force, we subside and decline into wealaiess 
and decay, only to pass into death and ob- 
livion. 

What a fearful, wasted effort is this life! 



[32] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



IV 

THE system of nourishment that Nature 
has imposed upon the world is not only- 
stupid and malicious, but also of a cannibal- 
istic character. 

We, as frail human beings, are horrified 
and shocked to think that our ancestors traf- 
ficked in and delighted in eating the flesh of 
their race, and even to-day we are making a 
strenuous effort to discourage the barbarous 
custom of killing animals to eat their flesh, 
yet it seems a dictate of Nature that forces 
us to uphold that custom. Just think of it! 
Nourishment and life-sustaining forces are 
derived from eating the cooked flesK of a 
dead animal, the unborn fowl, the bowels of 
the lamb, and the eggs of the fish! 

Can you imagine the wildness of life in 
such a jungle of cannibalism? No wonder 
the savage instinct is so deeply implanted in 
us. 

[33] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

To get a fair idea of the food we eat to 
sustain life and to please and satisfy our pal- 
ates, we need but take a casual glance at any 
of our modern butcher shops. Although to- 
day you will not see human limbs on display 
and for sale, as they were years ago, you 
will be impressed with the following mor- 
sels put there to tempt your appetite: In 
our modern butcher shops you will find pigs' 
feet, calves' brains, ox tongues, breasts and 
legs of lamb, chicken livers, dogs ground to 
bits and sold as sausages, live and dead fish 
of all kinds and varieties and innumerable 
other portions of animal flesh. 

Fortunately we have got beyond the point 
where we eat the entrails of these animals, 
although we use their hoofs to make glue, 
their bones for powder, and we string our 
delicate musical instruments with their vitals. 

The things we consume, in turn consume 
the living forms that they capture and sub- 
due. 

The lion, the tiger and the leopard will de- 
[34] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

vour US more quickly, and with less ceremony 
and with more delight, than we devour other 
animals. We, being "civilized," boil the ani- 
mal's flesh and season it with weeds that 
Nature allows to grow, to give it zest and 
flavor, while our wilder brothers eat us in 
the raw, natural manner, only removing our 
civilized clothes. 

Really, if getting nearer to God is getting 
back to Nature, the beasts of the fields have 
an advantage over us. And we know to-day 
that even the living things in the vegetable 
kingdom suffer alike from the fearful tor- 
tures and penalties of the world. They fol- 
low almost the identical routine of life that 
we follow. Birth, life, reproduction, and 
death are their lot as well as ours; so that, 
if man were only to practice the idealism of 
his cramped and feeble brain he would starve 
to death! 



[35] 



XHE TYRANNY O E GOD 



V 

IF the world is the result of an established 
plan, as some say, it must be the concep- 
tion of a hideous monster whose three car- 
dinal principles are Disease, Despair and 
Death. But this much we can say: Though 
God created us a savage, fortunately man is 
civilizing Nature's brute and is making him 
a Man. 

Disease is one of Nature's cardinal forces. 
So, to attain health, we struggle against dis- 
ease ; but health only means the guarding of 
it through fear. "With all the ills the flesh 
is heir to," true health is a chimera, an exist- 
ing state unlaiown to man. 

To be "well" is such a precious condition, 
that Nature cautions us against expecting to 
retain health too long, by instructing us, 
through experience, to prepare for a siege of 
illness. Thus, disease and illness would seem 
to be the natural states, and health the arti- 
[37] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ficial condition under which Nature permits 
us to live. No one goes to his grave without 
suffering the tortures of some disease and 
paying the penalty of living. No one is ex- 
empt from the inflictions Nature imposes. 

The greater portion of our life consists in 
devising means and medication to relieve us 
of our states of ill health and disease. Sani- 
tation and all the methods we are capable of 
discovering and inventing are becoming uni- 
versally applied to kill and to destroy the 
menacing germs that God causes to in- 
habit the air, and that breed and multiply in 
the fertile flesh of our bodies. 

And finally, we are so utterly ignorant of 
how even to eat, sleep, walk, breathe, stand 
or sit, that the slightest infringement of the 
simplest rules of life can, and does, cause us 
irreparable harm. 

If we did not move to help ourselves. Na- 
ture would have us live in filth and stagna- 
tion. 

We seek, discover, or invent all kinds of 
[38] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

methods to build health and to remain per- 
fectly strong throughout our lives, and yet, 
despite it all, we are puny and sickly beings. 
In fact, I do not think there is such a thing 
as perfect health. Wliat we may do to cor- 
rect, insure or perfect our healthy tissues will 
have a detrimental effect upon some other 
part of our body. What we do to build up 
must also tear do^vn. What we do to produce 
health will, after a certain point, produce dis- 
ease. This, it seems, is the law not only of 
life, but also of the universe. 

It is regrettable that God did not pos- ^ 
sess the magnanimity of an Ingersoll and 
make health contagious instead of disease. / 

Physical pain and mental suffering are the 
mysterious sorrows that we must experience 
and pay to a tyrant God for the existence we 
bear. It is incontrovertible that no realiza- 
tion is given us by Nature of the fearful 
pains and tortures that we are capable of suf- 
fering and still sustain ourselves, only to re- 
peat over and over again the unending tor- 
[39] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ment in exchange for the consciousness of 
a worthless life. 

We, with our limited intellects, with our 
puny strength, with our inability to utilize 
all the materials in our possession, are still 
superior to the workmanship and the justice 
of God. 

Tyrant is no name for such a God, who 
creates a living organism purposely and ma- 
liciously to torment and torture it. 

A poor creature is a God who makes his 
suffering playthings more powerful than 
"he," and compels them to bear their exist- 
ence imder the lash of inexorable laws of 
sorrow and suffering, pain and penalty. 

And yet we are satisfied with so little. We 
ask for a crumb only. We are pleased with 
the slightest favor. A toy delights us; a 
little trinket elicits from us warm gratitude; 
a breath of balmy air is drunken with keen 
and pleasurable delight; a '*fine" day is cele- 
brated with exultation! 

But what a mockery is life ! 
[40] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

We writhe in pain and bear the brunt of 
an arrogant tyranny from whatever force 
that created and controls us. We must daily 
bathe our bodies, wash our hair, brush our 
teeth, change our clothes and perform other 
necessary physical functions to feel freedom 
from the filthy conditions that Nature im- 
poses upon us and surrounds us witH. 

If Nature saw fit to give us eyes, she 
should have given us perfect ones ; not those 
which, upon the slightest contact with a 
minute foreign substance, cause unutterable 
pain and possible loss of sight, in a world 
where sight is so imperative! 

If Nature saw fit to give us ears, she 
should have given us perfect ones; not those 
which are capable of such frightful pain, with 
the possibility of becoming totally deaf, when 
it is so necessary to hear! 

If Nature saw fit to give us a nose, she 
s^hould have given us a perfect one ; not one 
that causes such miserable torture and un- 
bearable suffering from the slightest defect! 
[41] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

If Nature saw fit to give us a mouth, she 
should have given us a perfect one ; one that 
would perform all the functions of perfect 
speech ; not one that is so liable to harm and 
so susceptible to dumbness, when speech is of 
such paramount importance to life! 

If Nature saw fit to give us teeth, she 
should have given us perfect ones ; not those 
which ache and pain with such fearful inten- 
sity that the mind is almost distracted ! 

If nature saw fit to give us arms, legs, and 
organs, she should have given us perfect ones ; 
not a body whose tenderness makes it an in- 
strument of such menacing torture; not a 
body of crippled bones and crippled joints, 
where suffering results from everything it 
does! 

If Nature saw fit to give us a brain, she 
should have given us one strong enough to 
withstand all the rebuffs of life, and one cap- 
able enough to utilize all the forces under 
command. Each person should be a mental 
Hercules capable of solving his own prob- 
[42] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

lems and directing all matter to its greatest 
material uses. 

Instead of the hmnan body being the mar- 
velously constructed instrument we are wont 
to believe it, we now find it to be nothing but 
a common machine, imperfectly made, and 
subject to innumerable changes and radical 
improvements. 

Every person acquainted with the anatomy 
of the body can give you a list of imperative 
improvements that it needs, and without 
which it will continue to function imperfectly 
and continue to cause pain and suffering to 
its possessor. 

It were a great deal better, after a full 
summary of life, were we to be created 
utterly devoid of feeling, equally impervious 
to joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. We 
should be manifestly benefited, for the 
greater part of our life is now full of sor- 
row, anxiety, fear, pain, disappointment and 
worry. 

A small portion of our life is a matter of 
[43] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

indifference. A portion might be termed 
satisfaction, and a minute balance, an in- 
finitesimal part, termed — if there is such a 
thing in life — joy. 

And yet, the joy we may experience to- 
day will not be present to-morrow to cheer 
and comfort us, but the pain that we feel 
to-day will pinch us more strongly to- 
morrow, and will remain as an ever-poignant 
memory. 

Joy and pleasure are of a transitory nature 
only, while pain and sorrow are of a perma- 
nent and accumulative character. Is all of 
life worth the sorrow, the agony and fear 
of death? 

Just think of giving a life so full of grief 
that those who have it do not want it and 
quite often destroy it! No wonder that 
drugs more powerful than our minds, used 
to numb the pains of life, are so much in 
demand and so universally used. 

What a ridiculous assumption it is to think 
that a soul, separate and distinct from the 
[44] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

body, would imprison itself in such a miser- 
able confinement ! 

Instead of life's being a privilege, it is a 
prison, wherein we must suffer fearful pains 
and still more fearful thoughts. Physical 
pain registers a high degree of intense fever- 
ish suffering, but mental torture is fired witK 
the scorch of hell. 



[45] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



VI 

HUMAN life is the cheapest thmg that 
God makes! No consideration is 
given to the feelings, pains and sorrows it 
must bear and endure. 

No wonder that ridicule, shame, hatred 
and other forms of mental suffering cannot 
be withstood by some frail minds, and cause 
them to seek relief from their torment. 

Under the red-hot brand of mental tort- 
ure, the jealous husband sees his wife violate 
every rule and principle and vow of virtue. 
He sees her reveling in the arms and embrace 
of him that he despises, committing trespass 
upon the one he so loves. 

The husband suffers more mentally in a 
few moments of these imaginings, than the 
actual performance, with his full knowledge, 
could cause him to suffer. 

Losses, mistakes, discouragements and dis- 
[47] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

appointments scorch with burning blisters 
the lining of our lives. 

I once thought it was cowardly to make 
destruction of oneself, but I must say that 
more mature thought, supported by actual 
scenes and experiences, has caused me to 
alter my view. 

But before I go farther, let me make my 
thought clear so as to avoid any misunder- 
standing. 

I do not mean that a person should shirk 
his or her duty in the face of hardship, dis- 
couragement or rebuke. On the contrary, 
the mettle of the man is best tested by such 
adverse forces, and some of the most inspir- 
ing moments of life lie in overcoming these 
conditions and triumphing over unjust, un- 
due and seemingly impossible odds. What 
I do mean is, when life no longer holds any 
attraction, when the ravages of disease have 
torn and mutilated your body, when pain 
and torture are raking your mind, and your 
daily companions are these miseries, ^vith no 
[48] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

possible hope of their relief or change, then 
by all means, by whatever agency you desire 
to accomplish it, save yourself the terrible 
agony of living, and defeat one of the tyrant 
impositions of God. 



[49] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



VII 

THE child suffers the sharpest pains, tHe 
crudest poignancy that could possibly 
be inflicted upon its body, through the 
stupid, frightening and monstrous tales that 
are continually told to it to make it "good," 
to make it "obey." 

To think that a child cannot bear to enter 
the dark, cannot bear to be alone, cannot bear 
to be separated from its loving and protect- 
ing parents, and yet must suffer in a few 
moments from a fatal disease — the agony of 
all this, in the face of death, is the crime of 
crimes, too damnable and horrible for words. 

I remember once seeing a little lost child. 
It cried for its mother. Hot tears were 
streaming down its burning cheeks. Its face 
portrayed the severest form of suffering that 
life is capable of experiencing. If Nature 
ever made a frail article, it is our tender off- 
spring, so bewildered, so utterly helpless, so 
[51] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

agonizingly delusioned, so pitifully searching 
for some familiar face ; something to make it 
discover its lost self. Oh, what power ever 
made us so tender, so incapable of self-help, 
as to have us undergo and feel such terrific 
suffering! It is injustice enough when 
adults are made to suffer mental and phys- 
ical ills, without inflicting such a painful 
decree upon mere infants. 

At least an adult has some conception of 
his suffering. He can make provision for 
some remedy. He can seek others to ask 
them to render help. He knows, he feels, 
he understands the situation, and can adjust 
himself as best he can to obtain some relief. 

But not so with the child. Its mind is not 
capable of comprehending the condition 
which makes its suffering so sharp. Its little 
brain is too feeble, hardly strong enough to 
direct its awkward and bulky body, much 
less to solve such an incredible predicament 
as being utterly destitute of help, in a world 
fashioned upon such an unsatisfactory plan. 
[52] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

There is not, nor can there be, a sadder, 
more distressing sight, than to see a little lost 
child overcome with fright. 

If it were in my power to abolish any of 
Nature's cruel laws, I would take from the 
little child its feeling of pain. 

Let me ask, would man, were it in his 
power, send a helpless creature, utterly un- 
able to sustain itself, without power of 
thought, understanding or expression, so de- 
pendent upon loving care, kindness, help and 
comprehension, into a world that is a wilder- 
ness, a world reeking with pestilence and 
populated with shrieking beasts and brutal 
and savage people? 

As a passing word regarding the cfhild, 
let me say this: 

Do not judge your child as an ordinary 
mechanical instrument, as if he could be 
wound up to a certain degree and gradually, 
as if by clockwork, tidsaway each moment 
of the day. The ch^'puC is a combustible force, 
and, although there are certain rules by 
[53] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

which you may obtain the greatest degree 
of improvement, you cannot rigidly adhere 
to them. There are numberless instances 
when the propensity or inclination of the 
child may appear to you to be aggravating 
and annoying; nevertheless, you must not 
let your irritability interfere with the devel- 
opment of that trait preeminent to the child's 
character. 

Look upon your child, encourage your 
boy or girl, to be a pioneer and a soldier 
in the march of progress. Instruct it 
with the knowledge of the miserable condi- 
tions of our past history, and bring it forcibly 
to understand that efforts only are repaid, 
and that we must work in order to accom- 
plish. 

Prayers are only wasted words on the 
desert air. The greatest mental crime ever 
committed is that of teaching a child, "while 
still upon its mother's knee," its duty and 
obedience to God. i\o >YOuld appear that 
for the amount of suffering it must endure, 
[54] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

and in the face of its unconsulted coming, 
we should at least disregard God for his in- 
solence, and impress upon the child the 
peculiar conditions of life. We should in- 
struct it, that from time immemorial, Nature 
Has been laboring through the most awkward 
process of reproduction, and has finally 
brought the child into existence, not to enjoy 
the benefits, or eat of the fruits of the earth, 
but to bear a life of continual strife and suf- 
fering. Not of God should we speak to our 
child, but of the importance of being pre- 
pared to do all in its power to help others 
to escape the torture, misery and hardships 
it must so painfully overcome. Is it any 
wonder that we grow up to be serfs and 
slaves? Before we are able to know or un- 
derstand the very rudest fundamentals of 
life, our entire mental machinery is cor- 
rupted by unshakable fears and dedicated 
to the vilest and most sickening submission. 
Would that we were left alone, and free to 
follow the thoughts of our own minds, re- 
[55] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

garding the great problems of life. What 
a mighty, unhampered power we would pos- 
sess to find the proper course of action, and 
possibly the real solution to the mystery of 
the Tyranny of God! 

To love and to reverence our tormentor is 
repulsive and despicable, and since we re- 
fuse to allow man to tyrannize over man, 
what degradation it is for the human race 
to cringe and bow down unconditionally to 
the imagination in the great realm of un- 
certainty ! 

Do not hurt your child. Do not strike it. 
Do not cause it any unnecessary pain. Be- 
fore it is able to walk, before it is able to 
talk, before it is old enough to tell of its 
pain and suffering, Nature makes it endure 
enough. 

Remember, the only language of the babe 
is the cry of pain. 

Imagine yourself under the lash of suffer- 
ing, utterly speechless and incapable of con- 
veying your wants and feelings to an abso- 
[5$] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

lutely strange surrounding, and you will 
have a slight picture of the growing child in 
your household. Did you ever stop to con- 
sider that the child, when born, does not 
know that you are its parent? It does not 
know that you are its father, or that you 
are its mother. It does not know what 
prompted its birth, or why it must live — 
and above all, what it has done to be sent to 
such a miserable prison place as the planet 
upon which we live. We must demonstrate 
all this as well as we can to the child. 

This much we can be sure of: kindness, 
tenderness and love should forever be our 
guide in our dealings and contact with 
children. 

The child is brought into this world from 
the insuppressible passion of two people, and 
surely without its consent, and it is absolute 
tyranny and barbarity to torment its mind 
or to punish its body, regardless of the result 
its action may have upon us. 

To the little children that have suffered the 
[57] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

horrible punishment so generally followed in 
that cruel and false book — the Bible — my 
heart goes out in pity, since words fail me to 
describe those savage characters that visit in- 
human, tormenting and torturous treatment 
upon their unwelcome offspring. 

If we were forced to perform the thousand 
tyrannies that are directed against the child 
during the day by cruel and thoughtless 
parents, the lunatic asylum would soon be 
our place of refuge. Such trivial things as 
a spot on the shoe, a speck of dirt upon the 
clothes, a mere tip of the hat, a slight turn 
of the scarf often give rise to such violent 
reprimand, and very often brutal punish- 
ment, that the savageness of barbarians is 
mild compared to such displays of temper. 

My heart again goes out to you, little chil- 
dren, when and wherever you are, that must 
bear the brunt of brutal actions from stupid 
and thoughtless parents and guardians. 
These people seem to classify children in the 
matter of discipline as groivn ups, thinking 
[58] 



THE TYEANNY OF GOD 

(or, rather, not thinking) that children's un- 
developed minds should be as strong as theirs, 
when they themselves are unable to practice 
the self-denial that they expect from mere 
infants. 

How often does a child receive a slap in 
the face from a parent for the asking of only 
a simple question, when the parent is not in 
the "humor" to "bother" with him? 

What a painful and terrifying beating 
does a child often get for disobeying some 
arbitrary command uttered by the one over 
him. To the child, "Don't do this," "Don't 
go there," "Stand up straight," and "Say 
this" are commands that carry with them 
court martial and its severe and unrelenting 
punishment. 

Remember this : The child will respond to 
kindness and love more readily and directly 
than to force and unwarranted discipline. 
It is purely a question of whether your feel- 
ings are actuated by these impulses. 

If you have become mentally strong 
[59] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

enough to restrain your impulses to strike 
your child, do not substitute other means to 
"punish" him. Changing the method of 
brutally inflicting physical pain upon your 
child to some other means, though less repul- 
sive, is still obnoxious and harmful. 

If you are unable to convince your child, 
by persuasion, example or otherwise, that 
you are right and that the child should fol- 
low your instruction, then by all means, let 
it become the victor in the contest. 

Fear — fear of pain, fear in every form — 
controls our lives, and shapes the courses of 
our puny destinies. 



[60] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



VIII 

THE mind, through fear of death, is 
capable of suffering, within a few 
moments, the tortures of an eternity, al- 
though to accomplish death, Nature may re- 
quire only a few minutes. The extent of 
the mind's capability for suffering is beyond 
compare. 

Nature has been distinctly conspicuous in 
imbuing us not only with grave doubts 
and imcertainties, but also with an un- 
shakable fear regarding death. In the deep- 
est moments of despair, when living has 
absolutely no attraction and life becomes a 
burden and a menace, we fight desperately, 
and without abatement, for this narrow, 
worthless thread of existence. 

Possibly the fear that we have in the face 

of death is caused by the fact that we must 

suffer pain before death is accomplished. 

And a great deal of the theory of "self- 

[61] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

preservation" is due merely to our great 
horror of pain. 

The indisputable fact that thousands 
"take their lives" by choosing the least pos- 
sible painful method demonstrates, with a 
firm conviction, my thought that it is the 
avoidance of pain, rather than the retaining 
of life, that prompts our efforts to live. 

It is only too true, and heard from the lips 
of thousands, that if they "could only lie 
down and never awake, what a blessing it 
would be." We speak in terms of "having 
lived too long," "being tired of living," "life 
not worth living," etc., as if life were a prison 
sentence, and, often, rather than continue the 
servitude, we surmount and overcome the 
deterrent of pain and destroy the life. 

Very often our desire to keep on living is 
prompted by our baser impulses. We "live" 
sometimes to "get even" with someone — to 
spite someone. We "live" sometimes to be 
able to "show" what we can or cannot do. 
Were it not for these baser impulses, what an 
[62] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

unlimited number of people would refuse to 
continue this monotonous, painful and non- 
paying life! 

The foregoing expressions of life, at one 
time or another, represent the feelings of all 
humanity. In the United States alone dur- 
ing the year 1920 it has been conservatively 
estimated that more than twelve thousand 
persons committed suicide. These persons 
were engaged in all kinds of pursuits and 
came from all walks of life. They ranged 
from social outcasts to society leaders ; from 
poverty stricken unfortunates to persons of 
great wealth; from illiterate men and women 
to editors and college professors ; from labor- 
ers and layman to physicians and ministers. 
The yoimgest suicide was a mere infant of 
five years, the oldest, an octogenarian of 106! 
Among the suicides of last year were two 
evangelists and twelve clergymen. It would 
appear that those who had devoted their 
thoughts and services to God would at least 
be spared the agony of such suffering as to 
[63] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

force them to prefer death and to take their 
lives. I say with Ingersoll, it is a wonder 
God does not at least protect his friends and 
defenders. 

The reluctance we have to die is due in a 
large degree to the possibility of securing 
a few more moments of joy from an already 
too much troubled world, with the hope that 
a little compensation will be derived from 
the pain and sorrow we have endured. 

And yet those things that we may live to 
enjoy to-day and to-morrow may likewise be 
present to thrill us at some future date, away 
and beyond the limitation we are capable of 
surviving. It is from this desire that we un- 
consciously "feel" that we would like to 
''live" always, to get our full measure of 
return; and since such is neither the lot nor 
the privilege of our possession, it really 
makes no difference when we die as far as 
personal satisfaction is concerned. 

The fear that possesses us now in the mat- 
ter of death will likewise and with equal 
[64] 



THE TYUANNY OF GOD 

force possess us later, when we actually and 
without ceremony must submit to the in- 
evitable. 

The desire that possesses a person to live 
now will, with equal attraction, obsess him 
later. 

Our desires and aspirations are never satis- 
fied. What we may cherish to accomplish 
to-day may be consummated and achieved, 
yet to-morrow another something will de- 
mand our energies to be spent for further 
desires to be accomplished. 

When we are babies we desire to walk; 
when we walk, we desire to talk; when we 
talk, we desire to grow; after we grow, we 
want to learn; after we learn, we want to 
do and to expand — and our performance and 
expansion are only curtailed by insolent 
death ! 



[65] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



IX 

THE only justification there is to live, 
once conscious of the damnable scheme 
of life, is the burning desire to do something 
to help mankind bear the conditions and to 
make easier the burden of life for those who 
are here and for those who are to come; 
for very often the greatest benefactors of 
the race are so maligned and persecuted in 
their day that only the future can render 
a just appreciation of their labor and their 
value. 

For without the improvement bestowed 
on life by the world's benefactors, over the 
crudity of Nature, it were better that we 
remain in the bosom of our wilder broth- 
ers, and hang from the trees by the length 
and the strength of our tails. Aye, back 
and back and back, down every degree 
of life until the time before the first cell of 
protoplasm from an inanimate into an ani- 
mate state started. 

[67] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

Why must we be made to suffer such 
dreadful torment before death, since by eter- 
nal decree it is the common lot all must 
endure? 

Death, puzzling, eternal death, is Nature's 
final stamp upon our fearful struggle 
through life. 

And the agony of death is more poignantly 
mental than physical, since the mind, review- 
ing the acts of the past, anticipates with 
anxiety and with picturesque vividness the 
wrongs, scandals, terrors, fears and injustice 
of the future. 

Since life is so replete with physical pains, 
no wonder our picture of death is so horrible. 

We see upon the lifeless form the cast of 
its agonizing pain, and augur from that an 
eternity of sorrow. But fortunately, in re- 
ality we can only feel pain as long as we 
possess "life." In a sense, therefore, death 
is a blessing. 

After all, the severest pains of death lie in 
the brains of the living. The mind is ca- 
[68] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

pable of suffering in one moment all that a 
lifetime can repay with pleasure, and no joy- 
is sufficient in value to compensate you for 
enduring an irreparable loss. 

The conditions that existed before our 
birth are identical with the conditions that 
will exist at our death. As we knew no life 
and felt no pain before our birth, we shall 
know no life and feel no pain after our 
death. 

Death is no longer the enigma of life. 
Living is its problem. The sting of death 
has been removed. We know death's des- 
tiny, and no longer fear its consequences. 
The only suffering attached to death now 
is the injustice of its time of coming, the 
reluctance of parting with loved ones, and 
the loss of the opportunity to attain. Well 
might I say with Shakespeare, that : 

" Cowards die many times before their death ; 
The valiant never taste of death but once. 
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 
It seems to me most strange that men should fear ; 
Seeing that death, a necessary end, 
Will come when it will come/* 
[69] 



THE TYKANNY OF GOD 

The most despicable characters of human 
life are those who prey upon credulous per- 
sons when in the face of death and shrouded 
with the fear of its uncertainty, picturing to 
those persons horrible and frightening tales 
of an eternity of torture. 

What imspeakable misery must those 
whose religious conviction has so terrified 
death and its aftermath, especially when 
it is intensified and horrified through the 
mouthpiece of ignorant priests, suffer in con- 
sequence of death. 

Oh, what a fearful sting must be there! 

Just think what this poor, vast, credulous 
multitude pay, with the sweat of their brows 
and the bend of their backs, to enrich these 
moral beasts in exchange for their ignorant 
and terrifying mumblings, that rob the de- 
luded ones of every fiber of courage and 
every thought of perfect peace and rest. 

It is while living that death possesses its 
sting and anguish. Anyone that seeks trib- 
ute from the dying, or from the living for 
[70] 



THE TYRANNY OP GOD 

services on behalf of the dead, is a damnable 
moral scoundrel and a cunning rascal. 

To those whose minds have been poisoned 
from childhood with this religious conviction, 
this most awful of beliefs, I cry: *'Throw 
off these tyrants of the mind. Emancipate 
yourselves from this fearful ignorance and 
mental bondage!" What a burden will be 
lifted from their lives and what a glorious 
freedom they will experience ! 

If we are to die, let us die in perfect calm- 
ness and in perfect peace. Let us become 
firmly convinced that, once we are dead, no 
thought, no act, can possibly harm us. We 
are beyond the pale of Nature's pangs. We, 
the individuals that we were, are free from 
everything. We are at rest, and forever. 



[71] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

X 

BUT after this life with all our pains 
and sorrows, what then? What is there 
to repay us for living? 

I answer: 

Nothing! 

I have no misgivings about tHe "future." 
I am firmly convinced that there is no **after 
life," that when we "breathe our last" we 
arrive at our eternity. We are "one with 
yesterday's seven thousand years." We are 
like the flower which, "once blown, forever 
dies." 

I firmly believe that life as now manifested 
in our bodies is a combustible force identical 
with that of any other form of life. No less 
so than the "seed" of the flower is different 
from the "germ" of the wheat. 

Both are forces ! 

So are we! 

They may be different manifestations, but 
fundamentally they are the same. 
[73] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

In fact, the very force that manifests itself 
in a mechanical instrument made by man is 
the identical substance that rules the organs, 
and charges the brain of our being. In the 
same manner that the force dissipates itself 
in the mechanical instrument made by man, 
and no longer gives motion to its parts, so 
the force that animates our being dissipates 
itself and is no longer capable of giving mo- 
tion to our parts and organs. 

As man's instruments are dependent upon 
many channels for their complete perform- 
ance, so the human brain and body have their 
many dependencies that must fully and 
properly be nourished to maintain their 
power. 

Each 3ay science draws another veil from 
the mystery of life. 

Our eye is but a chemical camera, that 
we have not only reproduced, but even im- 
proved upon. 

Our voice is nothing but a vibration, that 
we Have not only reproduced and improved 
[74] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

upon, but whose minutest modulations we 
have recorded in innumerable duplications. 

Our ear is but a drum, that carries and 
conveys to the brain the vibrations of our 
voice, and that function we have reproduced 
and even improved upon by the instrument 
we call the telephone. 

The telegraphic system of the human body 
that communicates to the brain the conditions 
that the senses perceive, is no other than 
that which man has even improved upon by 
the transmission of an intelligible message 
to a far-distant land without the use of any 
apparent conductor. WitH the marvelous 
instrument, the telephone, man sends his 
voice around the world. 

Man's greatest inventions, the phono- 
graph, the camera and the telephone, both 
wire and wireless, make the work of Nature, 
as manifested in our bodies, a simple, child- 
ish affair, fit only for the kindergarten of 
things. 

When Edison invented the incandescent 
[75] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

light and reproduced the human voice in the 
phonograph he pulled aside the veil of secrecy 
and penetrated the infinite. 

He proved and demonstrated man to he 
greater than God. 

Our limbs carry our bodies in the direc- 
tion our brains dictate, and that function 
we have reproduced and even improved 
upon in all the means of locomotion that we 
daily use and which we now consider as a 
"matter of fact" among the ordinary things 
of life. "Comparisons are odious" when we 
compare the awkward motion of Nature 
with the rapid locomotion of man. 

Man progresses far too rapidly for the ac- 
commodation of Nature, and as a result 
adapts for his use and benefit vital essentials 
that Nature in her laziness has either failed 
to utilize, or will not utilize. 

Although we have not yet completely dis- 
covered all the material and mechanical 
elements that compose life, we are sure and 
certain of their origin. 
[76] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

We hear ourselves talk; we decide upon 
our destination and direct our motion; we 
eat when we are hungry; sleep when we are 
tired; cry when we are in pain; and laugh 
when we are tickled. Our whole being from 
start to finish is mechanical, and the element 
of something "spiritual," something separate 
and distinct from a purely material sense, 
is absolutely illogical and ill-founded in view 
of the illimitable illustrations that are being 
demonstrated every day. 

It is a thing easily understood, if we 
logically, and intelligently, without blind- 
ness, preference or prejudice, analyze the 
problem. 

It may sound better and more desirable 
to say that we possess a "soul" — ^that this 
life is but a "stepping stone to a higher 
plane" — but it is not true. 

We cannot observe the true, actual facts 
of life by coloring our subject. If we want 
to determine the truth we must be mentally 
prepared to accept the truth. 
[77] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

A painted face, brightened eyes, blackened 
eyelids. Marcelled hair, and a form draped 
in all the splendor of the finest silks do not 
make a woman possess the sweetness and 
charm that all this "dope" is intended to 
make us believe. 

As much as man wants to have the end of 
this life attain certain benefits and destina- 
tions, this desire does not make them real. 

The implicit confidence in a faithless wife 
does not make her loyal and virtuous. A 
wife's confidence in a profligate husband 
does not make him stanch and true. 

Life calls for a cold analysis. It must be 
stripped of all its artificial colorings and 
superfluities. It must be measured and 
weighed for what it actually is, not for what 
we would like it to be. It must be deter- 
mined in the unwavering scales of science. 

The proper study of mankind is not the 

man in the white starched collar, witH 

trinmied hair, shaven face and polished shoes, 

but the man recently from the forest, with 

[78] 



THE TYRANNY 01! GOD 

coarse^, grizzly hair upon his back, brutal 
and violent passion dominating his body, 
and savageness and hatred in his startled and 
terrifying eyes. 

The sooner we come to the realization of 
this vital fact, the sooner we become ac- 
quainted with the basic origin of life, the 
sooner we shall understand life, with its 
achievements^ with its aspirations and hopes. 



[79] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XI 

IT is an absolute fact and certainty, im- 
possible of refutation, that when anima- 
tion ceases in the body and no effort is made 
to revive it, life ceases and the processes of 
decay and decomposition set in. 

Yet it is permanently established and has 
been successfully demonstrated innumerable 
times, that certain methods of artificial 
stimulation have revivified and resuscitated 
the delicate organs that cause the heartbeat 
and give consciousness to the brain. 

Recently my local newspaper contained 
the following item: 

"dead" but baw no spirits 
OJdahoma City, OJcla., February 7th — Neal Dill- 
ingham doesn't believe in after-death communication 
with the living. Dillingham was " dead " for twenty 
minutes recently, and he says he ought to know. 

Doctors said Dillingham's blood circulation was 
stopped by a clot of blood. His heart stopped beat- 
ing, and he did not breathe. 

Insertion of a saline solution into his artery just 

[81] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

above the heart caused the clot to dissolve, and 
Dillingham came back to life. 

" I did not return to earth after I left it," said 
Dillingham. " I had no knowledge of anything that 
took place, but I must have been pretty dead, as I 
do know I didn't recognize several persons I had 
known all my life, after I was myself again. If I 
had any talks with anybody while I was 'dead* I 
don't remember anything about them/* 

Believing lEal iHe putlieify lEa^ lEs case 
received would make the party known to the 
postal authorities, I sat down and wrote him 
a letter, hoping that, if fortunate enough to 
have a letter delivered to him, he might be 
kind enough to ^vrite me personally of his 
experience. 

After a lapse of several days I received 
from him a letter substantiating in detail all 
that was mentioned in the newspaper clip- 
ping quoted above. 

In the instance of this man Dillingham, 
he was "dead," so to speak, and as far as his 
"soul" was concerned it had "left" the body; 
yet the injection of a material solution, com- 
pounded by man, in conjunction with arti- 
[82] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ficial respiration, caused the beating of tHe 
heart and gave back to the brain its power 
of consciousness. 

If it is the "soul" that causes the function- 
ing of the body, where is it when such an 
action takes place? 

If it is the "soul" that" gives us "life," 
how is it that we can materially and mechan- 
ically destroy it? 

We are born and nourished by material 
means. 

yVe live our life by material means. 

We reproduce our kind by material means. 

And we can destroy ourselves by material 
means. 

Everything that touches and concerns our 
life is purely material, and it should be in- 
cumbent upon those who believe in the 
"Soul" or the "Spiritual Element" of man to 
produce the proof of their contention. 

We are nothing but a continual propagat- 
ing instrument, without spiritual, moral, last- 
ing or ultimate value. We are here to re- 
[83] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

produce our kind and for nothing more. 
What man secures for himself within the 
narrow circle of his existence here is all that 
he gains for the life that Nature forces him 
to live. 

Everything man has, man has made. 
Nothing has been given to him by Nature. 
God has been a miser! 

If man possessed a "soul" the thousand 
deformities of the brain would not exist. In- 
sanity would be impossible, and all the forms 
of petty vices that so miserably affict us 
would be totally unkno^vn. 

That which gives us the power of life is 
a combination of the material forces of Na- 
ture, and the elements that compose the 
brain are of a chemical substance. The dif- 
ference between a "live" person and a "dead" 
one can be summarized by a great many 
instances about us, aad because of their com- 
monplaceness, we do not observe them. 

There are many apples falling to the 
ground, but we are not inspired with the 
[84] 



THE TYRANNY OH GOD 

knowledge that the actuating force is grav- 
ity. 

One of the best illustrations, to show iHe 
difference between a "live" and a "dead" 
person, can be had from that excellent in- 
vention called the "film" or "plate," and 
which is so remarkably used in the camera. 

When that sensitive composition of chem- 
icals that forms the "film" and which pro- 
duces such a vivid and lasting likeness of 
ourselves is freshly made, it possesses that 
vital something we call "life." 

But allow this film to remain unuse3 for 
a period of time, and it will no longer be 
able to perform its remarkable work. It will 
not possess the "life" to take a picture or to 
record an impression. 

If a premature "exposure'* of tHe Sim is 
made, it loses its vital quality because of the 
mixture with other elements, or because of 
the evaporation of its constituent parts. 

It is not necessary to analyze all the prop- 
erties of that film to show the principle 
[85] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

whereby it performs its wonderful work. 
The general principle, showing its marvelous 
use while intact and its utter uselessness 
when its composition is no longer the same, 
should be sufficient to illustrate the com- 
parison. 

This illustration can with force and con- 
viction be applied to the peculiar quality and 
nature of our "soul" and brain. 'As long 
as the brain is incased within our skull, and 
fully protected from contact witH any other 
substance to alter or to change its integrity, 
it will perform all that is warranted of it. 
In the case of our brain, though, besides the 
importance of keeping it protected from out- 
side chemical action, the vital element con- 
cerned in its continuity of life lies in the 
importance of keeping ii constantly nour- 
ished and supplied with tHe remarkable qual- 
ities of the vital substance of blood. 

The moment the blood supply to tHe brain 
is stopped, our brain loses its most important 
constituent, with the ultimate and inevitable 
[86] 



;>r 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

result of inertia, decomposition and decay. 
When this condition happens we are then 
*'dead'' and, like the proverbial egg, "all the 
King's horses and all the King's men cannot 
put Humpty Dumpty together again." 

If we possessed a soul, and it were of a 
permanent and special quality, it would 
maintain its impressions and remember its 
existence. 

It could pass through innumerable periods 
and know its many and varied journeys. 

Even memory, so unreliable in our short 
life, bespeaks the utter impossibility of such 
a thing as a soul with a permanent and last- 
ing existence. 

That which we call the "soul" is nothing 
but a chemical composition, that can and does 
lose its permanency while we are still alive. 

We are acquainted with a number of 

chemical compositions that must remain in a 

pacific state to maintain their identity, so 

those chemical forces that compose our 

[87] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

"soul" must perforce maintain their equi- 
librium. 

If we are stunned, or suffer any of the 
many conditions that upset chemical com- 
pounds and compositions, we, for the time 
being, suffer either "unconsciousness" or 
some other form of mental disability. 

If we are shocked too severely, we become 
totally and permanently impaired, and suffer 
violent fits and fearful rages, insanity or 
imbecility. 

Different shocks, and even forms of dis- 
ease, result in certain action upon our chem- 
ical brain, which causes it to lose only part 
of its ability. Extreme high fever is only 
one form of illness which causes the brain 
lo lose its stability and run rampant and 
unbridled. 

If I were fully cognizant of all forms and 
degrees of disease, I could recite exactly how 
they act and in what degree they harm the 
delicate organism of our brain. In many in- 
stances shocks or diseases too powerful for 
[88] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

our brain to withstand, cause that portion 
of our brain that may control our speech, 
our sight, our hearing, our limbs or other 
organs to lose its power, with the conse- 
quence that we must suffer and be handi- 
capped with what is properly called "a great 
affliction." 

Science to-day has discovered that great 
truth, and has not only catalogued the differ- 
ent portions of the brain in their individual 
departments or capacities, but, by a master 
stroke of surgery, can correct and remedy 
those impaired parts, and give back to the 
human being the use of those valuable or- 
gans that the invisible agents of Nature had 
taken away. 

So, instead of the brain's possessing a; 
"soul," we find it, only in a more delicate 
degree, a mechanical formation such as we 
discovered our body to be. 

But if we possess a soul and it is capable 
of passing through the many and varied 
stages that life suffers, what becomes of its 
£89] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

impressions? What and where are the ben- 
efits of its retention? 

Where is the soul when we are in a state 
of unconsciousness? Surely, if the soul were 
ever present to guard and maintain life, it 
would be standing by and using its power 
when it is most needed. We have no occasion 
for help when we are not in danger. It is 
when power can be used and exercised that 
it should be manifested. 

Even love, the great compelling force of 
our life, is subject to the variations of our 
chemical "soul," its attractions and repul- 
sions. 

If two form the unit of reproduction, and 
love is the great mating mediimi of Nature, 
then once it is animated, once it is brought 
into existence, it should endure permanently, 
and the possessors should at least enjoy their 
blissful companionship until the end. But 
no. Nature would entice, and then destroy, 
this most consuming feeling of life. 

Two persons can start life with the most 
[90] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

irresistible attraction and irrepressible love 
and within a very short time, unless they 
guard their love with every means and 
weapon of advanced thought and reason. 
Nature, through her duplicity, will provide 
searching eyes to alienate their affection, 
causing a wretchedness unparalleled in the 
mental miseries of mankind's life. 

The saddest state of all is when Iwo per- 
sons, with the sacred devotion of love, cohabit 
and the happy result is loving children, and 
yet while this happy family, free from 
Nature's pitfalls and snares, are living in a 
peaceful and blissful state, there exists the 
ever-menacing "devil" who tempts the loving 
wife and mother to follow the will-o'-the- 
wisp — and thereby undoes and destroys the 
greatest kingdom of life. 

The devoted husband and father, by the 
flash of an eye, and the charm of a face, can 
forsake his sacred ties of devotion and be- 
come a degenerate and outcast, with death as 
his only salvation. In either case Nature 
[91] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

stands by with a sneer upon her lips, and 
God forgets his obligation to his children. 
But the final analysis proves beyond doubt 
that the physical attraction is responsible for 
this action; and who can deny that it is the 
chemical attraction of two forces that pro- 
duced this irresistible desire? 



[92] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XII 

IF the life we live be a kindergarten or 
infancy of a larger and better life some- 
where else, Nature defeats her own ends, 
because myraids pass on, leave here, with the 
most dwarfed intellects, utterly unprepared 
to live here, and much less prepared to 
live in a higher state and on a more lofty 
plane. 

Were such a condition true, that this is 
but a transitory existence, we should all have 
to go through the same schooling of life, and 
be indelibly impressed with its lesson, with 
conviction and understanding that the same 
mistakes would never be repeated, or the ac- 
quired knowledge would be constantly and 
forever used. 

There would be no deaths in infancy, as 
each child born would be purposely sent 
here; neither would there be premature 
[93] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

deaths, as no one could leave without "learn- 
ing his lesson." 

There would be a fixed standard of knowl- 
edge and development that we would be re- 
quired to attain. Knowledge, or whatever 
condition Nature imposed, would be our 
destiny, and we would devote our entire life 
to its acquirement. 

[A^s it is, we bend our efforts and use our 
strength to avoid and to escape the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. 

If our life were given to us in order to 
pass through a school of experience, the sim- 
plest truths would immediately manifest 
themselves to our minds, and conviction 
would be instant and permanent. 

But how sadly untrue is this premise! 

For thousands, aye^ for millions of years, 
the people have been stupefied with the most 
ignorant and foolish superstition. An in- 
stance that will present with great force an 
illustration of the utter folly of the conten- 
tion that we are living on this planet as a 
[94] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

lesson in school, lies in the fact that for hun- 
dreds of thousands of years people not only- 
believed but religiously guarded the fact that 
the earth is flat. 

Even to-day, with irrefutable demonstra- 
tions of the truth, there are some people who 
either cannot, or will not, accept it. 

As desirable as this theory of a transitory 
state may be, it is even contrary to Nature 
herself. The entire scheme of Nature seems 
to be fashioned upon the same principle as 
our life. The fearful struggle of the elements 
involved squares identically with our own 
existence. Even the gigantic constellationSj 
flying with an incalculable velocity, leaving 
destruction and desolation in their tracks, 
meet in their ignorant and blind journey the 
same fate as we meet. Recent astronomical 
discoveries speak of a struggle constantly 
taking place in those areas. 

The belief of an existence after death is so 
untenable in the face of many scientific dis- 
coveries of to-day, and of the irrefutable 
[95] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

facts that are constantly staring us in the 
face, that an instance or two are all that are 
necessary to prove the fallacy of such a 
belief. 

Under many circumstances we are unable 
to recognize our own blood relations after a 
lapse of a certain length of time. Parents 
fail to know their children ; and children their 
parents. This is equally true in every com- 
parison and degree of relationship. Features 
and characteristics imdergo such a decided 
change and transformation that recognition 
is ofttimes even impossible. Even the law 
courts are continually called upon to deter- 
mine the proper identity of persons, to estab- 
lish the ownership of property by other means 
than by personal identification. Most re- 
markable of all, under new conditions, we do 
not recognize ourselves within the interval of 
only a few seconds ! 

Try this if you would seek proof, and con- 
vince yourself that recognition of your own 
personality is momentarily impossible, and 
[96] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

that you must resort to other senses than that 
of sight to identify yourself. 

Put a wig upon your head, blacken your 
face, "make up" your features, and when you 
have finished and are completely unaware of 
your changed appearance, look into the mir- , 
ror for your reflection and feel the sensation 
of the startling fact that you know not your- 
self. 

We speak of changes so radical in a per- 
son's appearance that we often say we could 
not recognize him *'in a thousand years." 

What a ridiculous presumption it is, then, 
to maintain that we live after death when all 
senses are gone and perception is dead! 

Again, how anyone can say that when we 
die we go to "heaven" is too childish to con- 
sider, because when we die, instead of going 
up and to heaven, we are put deep into the 
ground to moulder and to rot away. 

What a far-fetched conclusion it is to as- 
sume that we live after death, minus all the 
physical characteristics and under conditions 
[97] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

utterly incomprehensible to our minds! 
Even if, at death, the body turned into in- 
visible gases it would mean and prove abso- 
lutely nothing. 

If we live after death, by what means can 
one person commimicate with another? 

lWc cannot feel, because we have no hands. 

yVe cannot see, because we have no eyes. 

yVe cannot smell, because we have no nose. 

.We cannot hear, because we have no ears. 

We cannot taste, because we have no 
mouth, no stomach. 

But, with it all, these Hve mediums of sense 
are dependent upon a living brain. 

The fact that we suffer the loss of our 
senses even before death, because of the com- 
plications in the make-up of our body, should 
be sufficient proof of the nonexistence of a 
soul and the utter impossibility of a life after 
death. 

Unless we retain and maintain our sacred 
ties after death, another life is valueless and 
void, useless and unnecessary. It is a fearful 
[98] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

sadness to think that the ones you love are to 
pass away into nothingness and be no 
more; that the sparkling eyes will be 
dim forever; that the rosy cheeks will no 
longer glow with radiant health; that the 
ruby lips will fade into a deathly blue, mo- 
tionless and forever still ; that dimpled hands 
and loving arms will never encircle you 
again, and the supremacy and tenderness of 
your love must be crushed with a cold and 
callous ferocity. 

But, sad and mournful as it is, witH the 
human heart beating hopelessly against hope 
for only one more chance to kiss and caress 
and love the one you so dearly cherish, it is 
nevertheless only too poignantly true that 
death ends all. 

Death means nothing to the affairs of the 
world. 

To be taken from amid the world in such 

an ever-living condition as now exists, is like 

taking a cup of water from an ever-full pail. 

The gap is immediately filled, and the level 

[99] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

of the water simultaneously adjusted, leav- 
ing absolutely no trace of what has been 
withdrawn. Only the individual suffers. 
iWhat a mighty burst of heart there would 
be if we all could feel and suffer at the same 
time ! 

Xature makes no difference and knows no 
distinction between the living and the dead. 
The warm and tender rays of the sun, and its 
blistering heat, fall alike upon the crying, 
innocent babe and the lifeless, unfeeling 
corpse. 

The sun does not shine to give us its neces- 
sary heat, without also bringing to light some 
new problem and pain for our over-troubled 
hearts to bear. 

Murder, rape and greed look no different 
to Nature than goodness, virtue and unsel- 
fishness. 

Tears were made for the things that God 
causes, laughter is the result of man's efforts. 



[100] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XIII 

IT IS man*s labor, man's work, man*s 
achievement, that gives us the little de- 
sire that we have to live. How often do we 
prefer death to living life in our former con- 
dition, after our efforts have brought us to a 
point of vantage and comfort ! 

Death is always preferable to the living of 
a "dog's life !" And yet, with it all, the little 
improvement we have to-day, with the still 
remaining cruel conditions of Nature left to 
endure and fight, has not been worth the 
struggle through the black and bleak past. 
The price has been entirely too severe for the 
little that has been gained. 

God gives man nothing; man gives man 
everything! 

What sublime courage it was that made 
the pathfinders of the past sacrifice their 
lives, in order that their principles of truth 
[101] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

might triumph, so that another link might be 
made in the chain of progress that is endeav- 
oring to break the spell of a tyrant power. 

You must be made to know that for what- 
ever desirable condition we have to-day we 
are indebted to heroic men and women of the 
past, who, in the days of infant progress, 
achieved a moral, physical and intellectual 
triumph. 

The chair you sit on, the cup you drink 
from, the fork you eat with, the light you 
read by, the bed you sleep in, the heat that 
warms you, the shoes on your feet, the clothes 
upon your back, the hat upon your head, and 
every part and particle of improvement that 
has enriched the world with a little touch of 
human comfort are the result of the heroic 
labors of the men and women of the past, 
who victoriously fought the accursed and 
chaotic forces of Nature, so as to make life 
and living a little better. 

But at every step and stage of progress 
the dogmatists have exerted their influence 
[102] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

toward retardation. What these dogmatists 
were unable to accomplish through fear and 
suppression, they accomplished through ostra- 
cism, and death. Human advancement and 
progress are foreign to the * 'believing" mind. 
The dogmatists are concerned only with the 
"supernatural." They want not the com- 
forts of life here if they can secure those 
benefits "hereafter." 

It is the attitude of the religious to belittle 
anything that is designed for human better- 
ment. Their philosophy is, the more you 
suffer here, the less you will suffer "here- 
after." Their humility to and fear of this 
"unseen" power is the most degrading trait 
in human beings. It is a frame of mind not 
only despicable and a hindrance in the face of 
progress, but even antagonistic to and de- 
structive of all things worth while. 

To them, the insanity of belief is of para- 
mount importance, and is more sacred and 
holy than human life. Aye, human life has 
been so subordinated to this superstitious be- 
[103] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

lief that it meant death in the past to those 
who rejected it. 

Rather observe some "holy day" than per- 
form "work" to help some fellow human be- 
ing in distress. Murder, rather than eat 
meat on a "forbidden day" ! This frame of 
mind is one of the mental mysteries that 
science has yet to solve. 



[104] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XIV 

THE rotundity of the earth was discussed 
and its circumference scientifically 
measured hundreds of years before the sup- 
posed birth of Christ, and had not the "God 
believers" been so persistent in forcing their 
belief upon others, and had not Christianity 
been born, I can see how the discovery of 
America would have been accomplished 
about a thousand years before the discovery 
by Columbus ; and the incalculable progress 
which would have been the consequence 
would have carried mankind beyond the 
boldest imagination of to-day, and placed us 
a thousand years nearer civilization. 

Hero, a mathematician, who lived a? 
the time when the Greek minds were the 
marvel of the world, invented a steam en- 
gine, which was used in experiments and was 
rapidly nearing completion and perfection, 
when, unfortunately, ignorant and destruc- 
[105] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

tive Religion, that was madly trampling 
upon everything of value, destroyed the fa- 
mous Alexandrian Library wherein was kept 
a model of this engine. It also swept away 
the incalculable wealth of knowledge that 
had required ages to accumulate, and thereby 
completely annihilated the most priceless 
possessions that the himian race ever owned. 

But that is not all ; it is only a fragment. 
For history at every stage of life shows the 
continual strife between the forces of prog- 
ress and the religious fanatic and God be- 
liever. 

What is that strange form of insanity that 
prompts people to torture and to destroy 
those who seek to emancipate them from the 
Tyranny of God and from the deluded belief 
in a hereafter? 

The attitude of all, each and every one of 
us, should ever be the desire and willing- 
ness to greet a new idea, to support a new 
thought, to try a new proposal, to do all in 
our power to uphold the forces of progress, 
[106] 



THE TYRA^TNY OF GOD 

to lend our help and to devote our energies 
in any direction that will ultimately lead us 
from the cruel forces and narrow limitations 
that are our lot to share. 

To those who have no thought for these 
things, who care not what forces and con- 
ditions man must face, w^ho take without 
thought and give only through compulsion, 
whose self-satisfied condition (made possible 
only by the heroic work of the martyrs of 
progress) make of them personal heroes, 
whose life is wrapped within the flicker of a 
day, who do not know, do not realize, and do 
not care about the fearful suffering of the 
world — I say to them to strut their intoxi- 
cated hour and pass away. The sooner they 
live their lives and the sooner they die, the 
better for the earth. It needs fertilization. 

Were we as mentally progressive as we are 
materially advanced, what a wonderful and 
magnificent improvement over the present 
living conditions we would be enjoying! 
Every new invention, every new improve- 
[107] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ment, would be immediately and universally 
installed, and every old and antiquated in- 
strument and method would be discarded and 
destroyed. That which now seems only 
within the command of the households of the 
immensely wealthy, would be as popularly 
used and enjoyed as the now commonly used 
articles in the poorest households. 

Think of existing to-day in a predominant 
percentage of dwellings for human beings 
where there is not found the essential bath- 
tub, or the still more essential toilet room ! 

Governments are instituted for the peo- 
ple's benefit, and shame upon such a govern- 
ment, in an enlightened age like to-day, that 
tolerates such a condition, v^hen that govern- 
ment possesses the men, the means, the intel- 
lect and the materials to electrify the world ! 

The first and foremost essential in higher 
development is the comfort and conveniences 
in a home. 

These are some of the conditions that the 
progressive minds of the world are trying to 
[108] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

solve and remedy. It is only a question of 
how much longer the majority of people will 
pay homage to an imaginary God for imag- 
inary benefits in an imaginary life after 
death. 



[109] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XV 

IT is the antagonism of tHe dogmatic world, 
and the apathy of the rest, that is the 
cause of the mental progress of the world's 
not keeping pace with the material progress. 

Better still, the universal application of 
the material progress has been far in advance 
of the imiversal acceptance of mental 
achievement. The automobile, the gigantic 
ocean liner, the talking machine, the electric 
fan, the elevator, the telephone and the other 
marvelous achievements of man are being 
used by the greater portion of the people, 
whose mental status belongs to the wheel- 
barrow, the simple chairj the ox cart and the 
tallow candle. 

Slight is the realization by the users and 
beneficiaries of science's modern methods, of 
the heroic struggles and battles that the 
great men and women of the past suffered to 
make possible these accomplishments. 

[Ill] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

Oh, How many suffered torture and death 
at the hands of the very people they were 
striving to benefit! 

This same fate has been met by all the 
brave and courageous, during the past, who 
have made any attempt to broaden the life 
and to ease the pain of the troubled heart of 
humanity. 

The unselfish enaeavors of man have made 
it possible to take the dumb matter of earth 
and mold it so the voices of the present can 
be heard by the ears of the future; so that 
several generations may hear and know, with 
a touch of human affection, the traits, fea- 
tures and characteristics of their ancestors. 
Language gives us their thoughts, the camera 
gives us their natural, life-like features and 
the phonograph their actual, living voices ! 

Nature never did so much. As far as 
Nature is concerned, bastardy may rule the 
world! 

One of the comforts of life is that we live 
again in actions and scenes, which, although 
[112] 



THE TYRAXXY OF GOD 

they are apart from our ovm lives, really be- 
long to the past or future races. But Xature 
sees to it that the births and deatlis, the 
knowledge and acquaintance of each and 
every generation, are so closely allied that 
none of us is allowed to escape the suffering 
of the world and the aoronv of life and death. 
Xo person can avoid the pain and the terrible 
fear that all must endure. 

Xo one person can live, move about and 
possess the varied improvements of the 
earth's materials all by himself. He is in- 
debted to others for their accomplishments, 
and they in turn are indebted to him for the 
improvements he renders. In short, we are 
all so closely allied with the actions and lives 
of one another that there should be a mutual 
appreciation and a common understanding 
among all. 

The farmer may know nothing about 
manufacturing ; the manufacturer may know 
nothing about farming; the artist, the ex- 
plorer, the thinker, the inventor and the sci- 
[113] 



THE TYRANNY OF QOD 

entist may know nothing about any field of 
endeavor other than his own, yet all are inter- 
dependent. 

With such a condition existing, and with 
the uncertainty of life forever staring us in 
the face, and no one eooerrfpt from its terrible 
enactment, it is a marvelous wonder to me 
why there exist so tenaciously in the human 
heart all the petty and aggravating tempers, 
prejudices and jealousies. 

What man has done with the forces of Na- 
ture are inspiring deeds. What progress has 
been made in opposing the forces of Nature 
is marvelous. What man will accomplish in 
the future witH the arrogant forces of Nature 
stimulates our hearts with the sweet satisfac- 
tion of a victory of the first magnitude. 

But in the final analysis;^ what does it avail 
us? 

Geologists tell us that the greater portion 

of the materials that we have taken from the 

field of Nature consists of the buried bones 

and bodies of our ancient ancestors, who 

[114] 



THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

passed through greater periods of agony, tor- 
ment, disease and death than we are finally 
and eventually to meet ! 

MTiat sort of crust in the earth's formation 
are we to make? What will be the product 
of the future living forces that will utilize the 
materials that our bodies will make? What 
will be the future living forces? 

It is fearfully sad to contemplate that life 
must continue and be subject to the miser- 
able laws that now govern it. 

Insect man, with his almost tireless indus- 
try, makes clothes to cover his ugly and awk- 
ward body ; builds houses to shelter him from 
the winds and the torrents of Nature ; fash- 
ions glittering palaces of amusement to cheer 
his troubled heart; compounds anaesthetics 
to ease his pain ; carves wood to replace his 
broken limbs ; molds metal to take the place 
of those things that Nature has made inade- 
quate for his use. In short, man has im- 
proved upon Nature to uphold his frail body, 
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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

to strengthen his weak bones, and to soothe 
his tender heart. 

That man, fighting the forces of Nature, 
has been able to accomplish so much is simply 
glorious, and this progress is an achievement 
of such wonderful magnitude that we are 
thrilled at the thought, and bow in grateful 
recognition for the benefits derived and the 
relief enjoyed. 

But why did not God institute all the ben- 
efits for the immediate use of man, so they 
could be enjoyed upon the first manifesta- 
tion of his understanding? 

Why was it necessary to go through the 
fearful period of past history and gain, only 
after a most gigantic struggle, the few things 
that we now use for our comfort? 

That these things could have been done is 
proved by the fact that man has done them. 
Fundamentally they always existed. Man 
has only discovered and applied them. And 
these things that we have gained to-day, from 
the struggles of the past, would have been 
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THE TYEAXXY OF GOD 

equally enjoyed by those who lived before 
us, with the same degree of benefit, just as 
the future will find, use and enjoy those 
things that we do not possess, and without 
which we shall be pinched, and pained, 
through the helter-skelter of this troublesome 
life. 

I brand as brutal tyranny this scheme of 
Hf e, that forces us to be a link in a long 
series of Hyes to produce something for the 
benefit of the far-distant future, that we, 
ourselves, imperatively need but shall not 
possess. 

I cry and denoimce and plead, in behalf of 
future humanity, to circumvent and to defeat 
this "sorry scheme of Hfe,'' that uses us as an 
instrument to produce something that we 
cannot use, do not know about and have not 
the understanding to comprehend. 



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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 



XVI 
6 4TN GOD WE TRUST," on coins that 
M. represent our labor and our endeavor, 
is an insult to the intelligence, courage and 
independence of the people, and a stinging 
rebuke to those responsible for our progress. 

A motto that more truthfully represents 
our material progress and intellectual devel- 
ment would be: *'In Science We Trust;" 
or, "Humanity and Justice Our Aim." 

The more we eliminate God from us, the 
more we are one without him, the better for 
us all, the better for humanity, the better for 
all the world. The less we "know" of God, 
the less God that is "in us/' the more human 
we become. 

The greatest, most frightful and destruc- 
tive wars of all time have been those which 
were started in "defense" of God, as if "he" 
cared what man says or does. 
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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

The most frightful and torturous instru- 
ments ever conceived by man are those that 
were made to force people to ''believe in" 
God. 

The history of religious persecution and 
torture is the horror of the world. 

May I ask, where was God, and what did 
he do, to stop this frightful nightmare of tor- 
ture committed in ''his" name? 

And may I answer for you, that he was 
where Moses was when the light went out? 

Remember this: There will never be a 
solution to any of our fundamental prob- 
lems, and mankind will never, in the full 
sense of the word, be free, as long as there 
exists in the human mind the insanity of 
religious belief. As long as God occupies 
a portion of our thoughts, mankind must 
be content to suffer the hatred and antago- 
nism of man. 

Let us make up our minds now, let us re- 
solve now, to stop fighting one another, and 
fight God by helping one another. 
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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

Let us stop fighting our fellow prisoners 
and fellow sufferers, and fight God. 

Let us help our fellow prisoners and fellow 
sufferers. 

Let us cleanse our minds of this supersti- 
tious poison of an "after life," and work and 
labor for the good and welfare of Here and 
Now. 

We possess the knowledge and the means 
and, within the span of only one day, could 
bring about the much-longed-for "Brother- 
hood of Man." 

We could eliminate hatred from our 
hearts, and instill Justice as our guide. We 
could eradicate poverty from our midst and 
bring happiness to sorrowing mankind. We 
could blot out tyranny among men and ex- 
change it for the priceless legacy of freedom 
and make the relation between man and man 
bear some semblance of humanity. 

But^ — and I say this with redoubled con- 
viction, and with all the power, force, energy 
and vehemence that I possess — ^if we are Na- 
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THE TYRANNY OF GOD 

ture's best endeavor, if man is Nature's best 
product, if the Natural world is incapable of 
any improvement, and life will forever be 
made to submit to the tyrannical conditions 
of Nature, then it were better ten thousand 
times over, that life were never called into 
existence, and that the universe were null 
and void! 

THE END 



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